Image Quality

The sample test images in this review were captured on the
JPEG Fine setting with the large (3872x2592/10M) image size
option, producing a file that is between 3-5Mb.

Noise

The Nikon D80 has a whopping 16 ISO settings that can be
adjusted in the manual and semi-manual modes via the menu
system, or by using the shortcut button on the back of the
body. Here are some 100% crops that show the noise levels
for each ISO setting:

ISO 100 (100% crop)

ISO 125 (100% crop)

ISO 160 (100% crop)

ISO 200 (100% crop)

ISO 250 (100% crop)

ISO 320 (100% crop)

ISO 400 (100% crop)

ISO 500 (100% crop)

ISO 640 (100% crop)

ISO 800 (100% crop)

ISO 1000 (100% crop)

ISO 1250 (100% crop)

ISO 1600 (100% crop)

H0.3 (100% crop)

H0.7 (100% crop)

H1 (100% crop)

At its lowest settings it produces noise free captures and
even up to ISOs under 1000, electronic interference is still
incredible minor. It is only at the highest H1 (3200) setting
that there are obvious signs of noise and overall performance
is first class.

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
soft at the default sharpening setting of Normal and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level
to suit your taste.

Original
(100% crop)

Sharpened (100% crop)

RAW Format

The Nikon D80 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format
files. It is important to remember that, unlike all the other
DSLR manufactures, Nikon charge extra for their software solutions
like Capture NX if users want to covert their NEF RAW files.
NEF files are recognised by third party software packages
like Capture One Pro and Adobe Photoshop CS2, but this is
also a pricey investment. Unfortunately, at the time of this
review even Nikon Capture NX couldn't read the D80
RAW file.

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon D80 shows little evidence of chromatic aberrations
or purple fringing even in high-contrast illumination.

Example
1 (100% crop)

Example
2 (100% crop)

Macro

The beauty of all DSLRs is that users have the ability to
use swap lenses for different subject matter. However, this
does come at a price, a Nikon macro lens can cost upwards
of £500. Users on a smaller budget will have to make do with
their standard lens to capture close-up subject matter. The
AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED DX lens enables photographers
to focus on a subject that is 38cms away, which is hardly
macro, or even close up. The first image shows how close you
can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card).
The second image is a 100% crop. There is also an example
of a shot captured with a specific macro lens - the Nikkor
105mm VR lens.

Macro Shot - Nikkor 18-70mm
Lens

Macro Shot - Nikkor 18-70mm
Lens (100% crop)

Macro Shot -
Nikkor 105mm VR Lens

Macro Shot -
Nikkor 105mm VR Lens (100% crop)

Flash

The pop-up flash on the D80 has several settings including
Auto, Fill-in flash, Red-eye Reduction, Red-eye Reduction
with Slow Sync, SlowSync, Rear-curtain Sync and Off. These
shots of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m using
different focal lengths.

Flash On - 46mm

Flash On - 75mm

Flash On - 105mm

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, none of
the flash options caused any red-eye.

Flash Off

Flash Off (100% Crop)

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop)

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction
+ Slow-Sync

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction + Slow-Sync (100%
Crop)

Night Shot

The Nikon D80's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds in the
Manual exposure mode and there's also a Bulb mode, which is
great news if you're seriously interested in night photography.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1/25th second,
aperture of f/4.5 at ISO 1600. I've included a 100% Crop of
the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Overall Image Quality

The primary concern of any photographer should be the quality
of the final image. The Nikon sports a large 10.2MP CCD DX
format sensor (3,872 x 2,592 pixels) that won’t disappoint
even the most passionate quality fanatics. Capturing images
as high-resolution jpeg at 300ppi means that they can be printed
out at 32.78x21.95cm and it stretched to A3 size without any
noticeable image degradation. Once images are printed at A3,
a close inspection reveals that there is superb definition,
colour depth and saturation in the Nikon image file. It dealt
impressively with chromatic aberrations and it was almost
impossible to spot any evidence of purple fringing, even in
high-contrast lighting. The D80 has an ISO spectrum from 100-1600
and offers an H function that enables the ISO to be boosted
to 3200. At its lowest settings it produces noise free captures
and even up to ISOs under 1000, electronic interference is
still incredible minor. It is only at the highest 3200 setting
that there are obvious signs of noise and overall performance
is first class. The extra burst of light that the pop-up flash
provides is more than adequate. There is no red-eye in any
portrait images and it exposes images accurately when used
in both the manual and the auto picture modes.

PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Nikon D80 have been
submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.

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